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Welcome to the Los Angeles City Board of Education’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The OIG reports directly to the School Board. This reporting structure gives the OIG significant independence from District managers and staff. This independence is extremely important because there is a natural tendency for managers and supervisors to be protective of the programs that they administer. In some cases, the discovery of waste, mismanagement or wrongdoing may reflect on the manager personally. Even if the manager is not implicated, revelations of waste or wrongdoing may reflect adversely on the program involved by undercutting the support of the School Board, Superintendent and public. Under these circumstances, managers and supervisors do not always identify or come forward with evidence of failings in the programs they administer. For that reason, the responsibility for auditing and investigating must be assigned to individuals with clear and unrestricted independence from District managers.
Hundreds of professional audits and investigations completed by the OIG have resulted in saving the District millions of dollars which is redirected to students in the classroom. Additionally, the OIG is responsible for suggesting and directing major reforms to the District’s infrastructure including the procurement process, financial management system, information technology structure, school construction program, environmental policies, transportation operations, workers’ compensation program, ethics policies, and payroll operations. |
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Jerry Thornton was appointed Inspector General of the Los Angeles Unified School District in February 2006, after serving for nine months as the Acting Inspector General. He serves as the Chief Audit Executive and Chief Investigator for an $11 billion public school system. He leads a staff of up to 80 auditors and investigators (including auditors from 10 public accounting firms) in detecting and preventing waste, fraud and abuse; recommending improvements to management controls; and increasing efficiency of operations.
Mr. Thornton is a native of Louisville, Kentucky and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Louisville. In 1970, Mr. Thornton joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as a Special Agent. He subsequently served in Louisville, Kentucky; Birmingham, Alabama; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; FBI Headquarters in Washington D.C.; and Los Angeles, California. While in the FBI he served as supervisor of Labor Racketeering investigations in Philadelphia, and was Chief of the Organized Crime Unit at FBI Headquarters. He retired as Senior Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Los Angeles Division in 1996. |
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